If you visit Kirel in the Cavern, you find find out a little more about them.

Here is what the GoArc website say about them:

Guild of Maintainers
[spoiler]
The Guild of Maintainers is one of the five Guilds that the DRC has encouraged and supported the restoration of. Their primary duty is the inspection and approval of Ages written by the restored Guild of Writers. They also have taken some responsibility for maintaining safety in the cavern as well as inspecting and reporting on Ages after the DRC has released them to the explorers.

The DRC has stated in their information in Kirel that "in the future, we hope that the new Guild of Maintainers will be the first people into every Age. The Maintainers will test all new areas for stability and functionality and any Age released to the public will require Maintainer approval."

Guild of Writers

The Guild of Maintainers, often referred to as GoMa, completed elections for several leadership positions at the end of November. They have maintained as much activity as possible in inspecting Ages in close cooperations with the Guild of Writers.

The DRC was able to open a pub specific to the Guild of Maintainers, and all who have picked up their t-shirt in Kirel have access to it through the nexus system. There is also at least one neighborhood associated with the Guild of Maintainers. Outside of the cavern they may be found at http://www.guildofmaintainers.org.

Current leadership consists of MustardJeep, the Guild Master of Communications and the head of the Book of Commentary project. Frisky Badger is the Guild Master of the Personnel Department. Montgomery is the Guild Master of the Submissions Department. Jishin is the Guild Master of the Creative Department. Andylegate is the Guild Master of the Training Department.[/spoiler]

Guild of Cartographers:
[spoiler]The Guild of Cartographers is one of the five guilds the DRC has encouraged and supported for restoration. Their primary duty is the creation of maps for all of the Ages and areas released by the DRC.

The DRC has stated in their information in Kirel that "in the future, we hope that the new Guild of Cartographers will create detailed maps and analyses of new Ages before they are released to the public. These maps will include geographical areas, machinery, instrumentation and the like."

The DRC was able to open a pub specific to the Guild of Cartographers, and all who have picked up their t-shirt in Kirel have access to it through the nexus system. There is no neighborhood associated with the Guild of Cartographers. Outside of the cavern they may be found at GoC Technical Data Site and Founding Web Site

In April 2008 Grand Master Aiden disappeared along with the GoC web site he created, UruMaps.com.

In Decemeber 2003 the first Grand Master, Pa'trick, signed his posts as Futographer. In January 2004 he was signing posts as Guild Coordinator. About January 20 he began signing as a Guild Master. As there was little if any organization, the promotion was a self made one. He posted requesting objections to the self-promotion and there were none. In what seems Guild tradition now he was confirmed as Guild Master by Guild members January 21, 2004 by unanimous agreement. Later that day the Guild was adopting the member titles we use today and Jenniran proposed that the top title be changed to Grand Master. January 22, 2004 Futographer publicly adopted the title; Pa'trick Grand Master of the Cartographer's Guild. It was adopted and remains in use today as does the shortened version, Grand Master Pa’trick.

The ‘Guild of Cartographers’ forum was proposed by Uru Obsession moderator Dan’ni, about January 23rd, 2004. Most of the Guild’s posting prior to that date was moved to the new Cartographer’s section of UO. The founding thread can be found here

About March 2004 Grand Master Pa’trick firmly established the policy of not showing spoilers on Guild made maps (e.g., no Journey Cloths).

The Guild Symbol was created by Moiety Jean and later used for the basis of the Guild symbol by Cyan.

The Guild as an association of free peoples was somewhat leaderless through 2006 and the Until Uru era. Guild Master Nalates, Guild Master Gadren and others handled issues as needed during this time. With the establishment of D’mala the Guild again became active. With the opening of the Cavern in 2007 new members arrived at the Guild Hall.

Aiden, one of the new members who was soon to become Grand Master, was first active in Feb 2007 (This being the oldest post of his at UO forum). That year he was 'elected' to the office of Grand Master. He created a new web site and found former members of the GoC, acting to rekindle interest. He worked to get the D'ni translation of the Guild name correct (Aiden, 2007) among other achievements. (tel-bah-tsen vs. tel-okh-bah-tsen-tahn-tee = Guild of Cartographers)

After the closing of the Cavern in April 2008 Grand Master Aiden disappeared and the web sites in his name went offline. As of June 2008 he has not been heard from. There is no support for the rumors that he was taken by the bahro.

There is no current Grand Master. Affairs of the GoC are being handled by Guild Master Nalates as of late June 2008. Nalates is presently seeking former and new members of the GoC. She can be contacted at UO, MOUL, and emailed at the Tech Data site for a quick response.

Notable Members

Grand Master Pa'trick (Futographer on some forums) - Was the founder of GoC and lead it from late 2003 to late 2005. While he remained the Grand Master into 2006, due to poor health he was inactive during the last part of his term and decided to retire. Pa'trick set much of the intent and flavor of the Guild.

Grand Master Aiden - first joined the GoC in February of 2007. He came to serve about a year as Grand Master before disappearing with no explanation. Aiden is responsible for the revival of the Guild during the MOUL era.[/spoiler]

Guild of Greeters
[spoiler]The Guild of Greeters is one of the five guilds that the DRC has encouraged and supported the establishment of. They are unique in that there was no historical Guild of Greeters.Their primary duty is to welcome new explorers to the cavern and provide resources both in and out of the cavern to help and support them. They are easily identified by their "Helping Hands" shirts, which have the image of two hands reaching for each other.

The DRC has stated in their information in Kirel that "in the future, we hope that the Guild of Greeters will be the first to meet visitors and new explorers and will have the tools to make those experiences as good as they can possibly be. Greeters will be responsible for making the transition from rookie visitor to seasoned explorer as smooth as possible."

The Guild of Greeters, often referred to as GoG, was formed during Prologue by Ron Meiners and Tijara who recruited a large group to join them. It survived through the closing of the cavern and remained active until the cavern was reopened. The Guild Masters adopted a new leadership structure on December, 9, 2007, which became effective on January 1, 2008.

The DRC was able to open a pub specific to the Guild of Greeters, and all who have picked up their t-shirt in Kirel have access to it through the nexus system (this is not the same t-shirt that Greeters wear on duty, and it does not confer membership). The Guild of Greeters has members in their neighborhood at all times awaiting visitors. They are one of only two neighborhoods that are permanently at the top of the list of public bevins. Outside of the cavern they may be found at www.guildofgreeters.com

The current leadership consists of Grand Master Indy, and Guild Masters Ayli, Ja'de, Kurtg1265 and Rex Havoc. Tijara, the former Grand Master, remains involved with her husband Tech as both own the forum and website, and provide counsel to the current leadership.[/spoiler]

Guild of Messengers

[spoiler]The Guild of Messengers is one of the five guilds that the DRC has encouraged and supported the restoration of. Their primary duty is to promote and facilitate communication both between explorers and between the DRC and the explorers.

The DRC has stated in their information in Kirel that "in the future, we hope that the new Guild of Messengers will be able to organize communications for explorers and the DRC. We hope to create a system whereby the Guild can carry out announcements, news events, important messages, and the like for all of those who visit the cavern."

The Guild of Messengers, often referred to as GoMe, has spent several months drawing together the major messaging organization in the cavern.

The DRC was able to open a pub specific to the Guild of Messengers, and all who have picked up their t-shirt in Kirel have access to it through the nexus system. There are neighborhoods associated with some of the affiliated organizations. Outside of the cavern they may be found at http://www.guildofmessengers.com

The Guild of Messengers currently conducts elections for members of the Guild Council semi-annually. The Council members and repsonsibities are listed on the Guild's Guild Council Structure page. [/spoiler]

Guild of Writers
[spoiler]The Guild of Writers is one of the five Guilds that the DRC has encouraged and supported the restoration of. Their primary responsibility is the Writing of new Ages. They work very closely with the Guild of Maintainers to ensure that the Ages they create are stable and suitable to be visited by explorers.

The DRC has stated in their information in Kirel that "in the future, we hope that the new Guild of Writers continues the tradition of making new Ages available. Though often considered the most elite of the Guilds, the Writers' tasks were also considered the most arduous and intense. We assume that the new tasks will be just as intense—Writing a Descriptive Book is not something to be taken lightly."

The Guild of Writers, often referred to as GoW, originates from several separate people and groups which have drawn together form a single Guild. They completed elections at the beginning of 2008 for their leadership positions, which they refer to as councilors.

The DRC was able to open a pub specific to the Guild of Writers, and all who have picked up their t-shirt in Kirel have access to it through the nexus system. There are neighborhoods associated with several of the smaller organizations that came before guild formed. Outside of the cavern they may be found at http://guildofwriters.com/

Current leadership consists of Paradox as the Councilor of Communication and Public Relations, Kato as the Councilor of Forum Management, Aloys as the Councilor of Building, and Hoikas as the Councilor of Tool Development. [/spoiler]

_________________"When you want your message out in the cavern, use the Guild of Messengers."

Good questions. There are no good answers. :) The process of building a Guild system was just getting started when Uru was cancelled in 2008. What we have now is sort of frozen in mid-development.

Neighborhoods fill the usual "MMO guild" role in Uru. You can send chat messages to your neighborhood group game-wide.

Uru's Guilds are groups of players interested in helping Uru grow. Some of these work in in-character ways, some out-of-character; some work in-game, some (really all) have web sites outside the game.

There are five in-game Guilds at present: Writers, Cartographers, Greeters, Maintainers, Messengers. To join one, go to Kirel (Nexus link) and choose a t-shirt from one of the five tables. That will add a Nexus link to the Writer's Pub, the Greeter's Pub, etc. (You can only have one at a time.) You can meet other players there, and add messages to the pub imager, but that's the only game mechanic that supports the guild system. (There is no guild-level chat.)

Don't get the idea that these five Guilds are all there are, however. That's just Cyan's initial trial list from 2007. There are several other groups of players that are organized on web forums. When Cyan reaches the point of updating the game world, they may add more pubs and more guild references.

If you visit Kirel in the Cavern, you find find out a little more about them.

Here is what the GoArc website say about them:

Guild of Maintainers[spoiler]The Guild of Maintainers is one of the five Guilds that the DRC has encouraged and supported the restoration of. Their primary duty is the inspection and approval of Ages written by the restored Guild of Writers. They also have taken some responsibility for maintaining safety in the cavern as well as inspecting and reporting on Ages after the DRC has released them to the explorers.

The DRC has stated in their information in Kirel that "in the future, we hope that the new Guild of Maintainers will be the first people into every Age. The Maintainers will test all new areas for stability and functionality and any Age released to the public will require Maintainer approval."

Guild of Writers

The Guild of Maintainers, often referred to as GoMa, completed elections for several leadership positions at the end of November. They have maintained as much activity as possible in inspecting Ages in close cooperations with the Guild of Writers.

The DRC was able to open a pub specific to the Guild of Maintainers, and all who have picked up their t-shirt in Kirel have access to it through the nexus system. There is also at least one neighborhood associated with the Guild of Maintainers. Outside of the cavern they may be found at http://www.guildofmaintainers.org.

Current leadership consists of MustardJeep, the Guild Master of Communications and the head of the Book of Commentary project. Frisky Badger is the Guild Master of the Personnel Department. Montgomery is the Guild Master of the Submissions Department. Jishin is the Guild Master of the Creative Department. Andylegate is the Guild Master of the Training Department.[/spoiler]

Guild of Cartographers:[spoiler]The Guild of Cartographers is one of the five guilds the DRC has encouraged and supported for restoration. Their primary duty is the creation of maps for all of the Ages and areas released by the DRC.

The DRC has stated in their information in Kirel that "in the future, we hope that the new Guild of Cartographers will create detailed maps and analyses of new Ages before they are released to the public. These maps will include geographical areas, machinery, instrumentation and the like."

The DRC was able to open a pub specific to the Guild of Cartographers, and all who have picked up their t-shirt in Kirel have access to it through the nexus system. There is no neighborhood associated with the Guild of Cartographers. Outside of the cavern they may be found at GoC Technical Data Site and Founding Web Site

In April 2008 Grand Master Aiden disappeared along with the GoC web site he created, UruMaps.com.

In Decemeber 2003 the first Grand Master, Pa'trick, signed his posts as Futographer. In January 2004 he was signing posts as Guild Coordinator. About January 20 he began signing as a Guild Master. As there was little if any organization, the promotion was a self made one. He posted requesting objections to the self-promotion and there were none. In what seems Guild tradition now he was confirmed as Guild Master by Guild members January 21, 2004 by unanimous agreement. Later that day the Guild was adopting the member titles we use today and Jenniran proposed that the top title be changed to Grand Master. January 22, 2004 Futographer publicly adopted the title; Pa'trick Grand Master of the Cartographer's Guild. It was adopted and remains in use today as does the shortened version, Grand Master Pa’trick.

The ‘Guild of Cartographers’ forum was proposed by Uru Obsession moderator Dan’ni, about January 23rd, 2004. Most of the Guild’s posting prior to that date was moved to the new Cartographer’s section of UO. The founding thread can be found here

About March 2004 Grand Master Pa’trick firmly established the policy of not showing spoilers on Guild made maps (e.g., no Journey Cloths).

The Guild Symbol was created by Moiety Jean and later used for the basis of the Guild symbol by Cyan.

The Guild as an association of free peoples was somewhat leaderless through 2006 and the Until Uru era. Guild Master Nalates, Guild Master Gadren and others handled issues as needed during this time. With the establishment of D’mala the Guild again became active. With the opening of the Cavern in 2007 new members arrived at the Guild Hall.

Aiden, one of the new members who was soon to become Grand Master, was first active in Feb 2007 (This being the oldest post of his at UO forum). That year he was 'elected' to the office of Grand Master. He created a new web site and found former members of the GoC, acting to rekindle interest. He worked to get the D'ni translation of the Guild name correct (Aiden, 2007) among other achievements. (tel-bah-tsen vs. tel-okh-bah-tsen-tahn-tee = Guild of Cartographers)

After the closing of the Cavern in April 2008 Grand Master Aiden disappeared and the web sites in his name went offline. As of June 2008 he has not been heard from. There is no support for the rumors that he was taken by the bahro.

There is no current Grand Master. Affairs of the GoC are being handled by Guild Master Nalates as of late June 2008. Nalates is presently seeking former and new members of the GoC. She can be contacted at UO, MOUL, and emailed at the Tech Data site for a quick response.

Notable Members

Grand Master Pa'trick (Futographer on some forums) - Was the founder of GoC and lead it from late 2003 to late 2005. While he remained the Grand Master into 2006, due to poor health he was inactive during the last part of his term and decided to retire. Pa'trick set much of the intent and flavor of the Guild.

Grand Master Aiden - first joined the GoC in February of 2007. He came to serve about a year as Grand Master before disappearing with no explanation. Aiden is responsible for the revival of the Guild during the MOUL era.[/spoiler]

Guild of Greeters[spoiler]The Guild of Greeters is one of the five guilds that the DRC has encouraged and supported the establishment of. They are unique in that there was no historical Guild of Greeters.Their primary duty is to welcome new explorers to the cavern and provide resources both in and out of the cavern to help and support them. They are easily identified by their "Helping Hands" shirts, which have the image of two hands reaching for each other.

The DRC has stated in their information in Kirel that "in the future, we hope that the Guild of Greeters will be the first to meet visitors and new explorers and will have the tools to make those experiences as good as they can possibly be. Greeters will be responsible for making the transition from rookie visitor to seasoned explorer as smooth as possible."

The Guild of Greeters, often referred to as GoG, was formed during Prologue by Ron Meiners and Tijara who recruited a large group to join them. It survived through the closing of the cavern and remained active until the cavern was reopened. The Guild Masters adopted a new leadership structure on December, 9, 2007, which became effective on January 1, 2008.

The DRC was able to open a pub specific to the Guild of Greeters, and all who have picked up their t-shirt in Kirel have access to it through the nexus system (this is not the same t-shirt that Greeters wear on duty, and it does not confer membership). The Guild of Greeters has members in their neighborhood at all times awaiting visitors. They are one of only two neighborhoods that are permanently at the top of the list of public bevins. Outside of the cavern they may be found at www.guildofgreeters.com

The current leadership consists of Grand Master Indy, and Guild Masters Ayli, Ja'de, Kurtg1265 and Rex Havoc. Tijara, the former Grand Master, remains involved with her husband Tech as both own the forum and website, and provide counsel to the current leadership.[/spoiler]

Guild of Messengers

[spoiler]The Guild of Messengers is one of the five guilds that the DRC has encouraged and supported the restoration of. Their primary duty is to promote and facilitate communication both between explorers and between the DRC and the explorers.

The DRC has stated in their information in Kirel that "in the future, we hope that the new Guild of Messengers will be able to organize communications for explorers and the DRC. We hope to create a system whereby the Guild can carry out announcements, news events, important messages, and the like for all of those who visit the cavern."

The Guild of Messengers, often referred to as GoMe, has spent several months drawing together the major messaging organization in the cavern.

The DRC was able to open a pub specific to the Guild of Messengers, and all who have picked up their t-shirt in Kirel have access to it through the nexus system. There are neighborhoods associated with some of the affiliated organizations. Outside of the cavern they may be found at http://www.guildofmessengers.com

The Guild of Messengers currently conducts elections for members of the Guild Council semi-annually. The Council members and repsonsibities are listed on the Guild's Guild Council Structure page. [/spoiler]

Guild of Writers[spoiler]The Guild of Writers is one of the five Guilds that the DRC has encouraged and supported the restoration of. Their primary responsibility is the Writing of new Ages. They work very closely with the Guild of Maintainers to ensure that the Ages they create are stable and suitable to be visited by explorers.

The DRC has stated in their information in Kirel that "in the future, we hope that the new Guild of Writers continues the tradition of making new Ages available. Though often considered the most elite of the Guilds, the Writers' tasks were also considered the most arduous and intense. We assume that the new tasks will be just as intense—Writing a Descriptive Book is not something to be taken lightly."

The Guild of Writers, often referred to as GoW, originates from several separate people and groups which have drawn together form a single Guild. They completed elections at the beginning of 2008 for their leadership positions, which they refer to as councilors.

The DRC was able to open a pub specific to the Guild of Writers, and all who have picked up their t-shirt in Kirel have access to it through the nexus system. There are neighborhoods associated with several of the smaller organizations that came before guild formed. Outside of the cavern they may be found at http://guildofwriters.com/

Current leadership consists of Paradox as the Councilor of Communication and Public Relations, Kato as the Councilor of Forum Management, Aloys as the Councilor of Building, and Hoikas as the Councilor of Tool Development. [/spoiler]

that is... somewhat more informative... however...
Does the Guild of Writers mean 'fan created ages'?
and the guild of maintainers/cartographers mean the group or players that map out these fan created or official ages and look for bugs/etc.?
It's only obvious what the greeters and messengers do...

However, again... I was asking how these perform as guilds, and what are their similarities to how guilds work in tradtional MMOGs? (so I can make a comparison)

Sorry... as of yet, it feels more like the guilds just pretend to do what they do... they're not guilds in terms of players working together on guild-related activities or teams/etc... they're just a title they can have...
Again, I don't mean that seriously... but that is the first and still current idea of what these guilds appear to be from my point of view... am I wrong? If so... explain how and why I am wrong.

_________________Alex 'Hypnose' [ID:00092816]
Hypnose is german for hypnosis, I use it as my... alternative pen name? Pseudonym?! ... lol.

Good questions. There are no good answers. The process of building a Guild system was just getting started when Uru was cancelled in 2008. What we have now is sort of frozen in mid-development.

Neighborhoods fill the usual "MMO guild" role in Uru. You can send chat messages to your neighborhood group game-wide.

Uru's Guilds are groups of players interested in helping Uru grow. Some of these work in in-character ways, some out-of-character; some work in-game, some (really all) have web sites outside the game.

There are five in-game Guilds at present: Writers, Cartographers, Greeters, Maintainers, Messengers. To join one, go to Kirel (Nexus link) and choose a t-shirt from one of the five tables. That will add a Nexus link to the Writer's Pub, the Greeter's Pub, etc. (You can only have one at a time.) You can meet other players there, and add messages to the pub imager, but that's the only game mechanic that supports the guild system. (There is no guild-level chat.)

Don't get the idea that these five Guilds are all there are, however. That's just Cyan's initial trial list from 2007. There are several other groups of players that are organized on web forums. When Cyan reaches the point of updating the game world, they may add more pubs and more guild references.

Now that's an answer thank you.
Alright, it sounds fascinating now... although I'm very new to both uru and the myst series(playing Realmyst now)... so I suppose I'm just looking to do... something, or find some direction... I'm just doing random puzzles now trying to figure out what the frack I'm supposed to do next!!! >.< lol
speaking of frack, is there a D'ni curse-word list I can use? hehe

As in Age of Conan, I often reminded those in the midst of arguments... to keep their hateful comments in-character... the hilarity of staying in-character while arguing usually made both parties calm down

_________________Alex 'Hypnose' [ID:00092816]
Hypnose is german for hypnosis, I use it as my... alternative pen name? Pseudonym?! ... lol.

Currently, most of the work the guild do (the greeters being the exception) is done outside of the cavern. And beleive me that they work as a team.

I'm gonna let the others guilds explain in detail their guild, but for example the Guild of Messengers produced for several months a monthly online newspaper(around 12 pages) and most the guild was involved in doing it: An editor, a co-editor, 2 proofreaders, several writers messengers and guest writers, an assembler, a photographer, several distributors, a webmaster.... Some projects need the help of many guild members, some only need a few people and some are solo projects.

_________________"When you want your message out in the cavern, use the Guild of Messengers."

To answer your earlier question -- the Guild of Writers *does* mean fan-created Ages. That work is happening separately from Uru right now, because Cyan hasn't set up any way for fans to contribute material to their game server. We don't know when or if that will happen (see Richard Watson's recent "setting expectations" post -- http://mystonline.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=19637 ).

Nonetheless, players are Writing, and there's some beautiful work being done.

You're completely justified in just exploring the game for now, and not thinking about the Guilds yet. :)

I'm going to be looking then for something simple, being so new to Uru... a 'group' so-to-speak of players that I can do puzzles with, chat with, and generally do everyday Uru-based stuff with... you mentioned 'that' would be a neighbourhood?
If so, or even if not, any suggestions?

_________________Alex 'Hypnose' [ID:00092816]
Hypnose is german for hypnosis, I use it as my... alternative pen name? Pseudonym?! ... lol.

Just a note-- picking up a guild shirt in Kirel, in most cases, does NOT mean that you have joined the guild (some of the information says that). It merely means you support the guild. In most cases, you'll have to go to the guild's own website to and join them there, as most of the guild work is outside of the game right now. For some, just joining the forums is enough, while others (such as the Greeters) have an application process.

And, to complicate matters even more, as has already been hinted on, none of these guilds have any official status. Basically, in most cases, a group of fans got together (or even one fan grabbed a website domain and plunked a forum on it, invited his/her buddies and created an ad hoc community/guild, crudely spoken). Anybody can call themselves the So-and-So Guild.

As an example, right now there is a group calling themselves the Guild of Writers which has the domain guildofwriters.com. Suppose somebody else comes along and does not like what they are doing (say, theoretically, in the future this group of people forks off the "official" Cyan ideas to start a nudist camp URU, I emphasize: THEORETICALLY), then there is nothing to stop another group of like-minded people to grab the domain wearethetruewritersguild.org and call themselves The Guild of Writers as well.

Nothing is written in stone yet, and I for one am very curious to see how things will play out in the future. As long as none of these groups have official status, anything goes... until Cyan says otherwise.

Probably not helpful but that sums up the current (muddy) situation pretty well, I think

Guilds… no good answers… noooooo… We have lots of answers. The ‘good’ in each answer is certainly debatable. But we have answers. Myst-Uru Guilds IC and OOC Part-I (which is an opinion piece)

There are three sets of guilds. There are the historic guilds that the D’ni people formed. Those are long gone and just part of the in Cavern lore, story.

There are the ‘Restored Guilds’. These are the in Cavern guilds that players form and role play in. They are In-Character guilds. Get your T-shirt, Cyan is a really nice color. These are guilds that Cyan formed in the 2007 MOUL game. There is some controversy about their choices as they swung a bit off story in naming the big 5 guilds.

There is the third set of guilds that are out of Cavern and are formed by fans working together in Out Of Character ways. The Guild of Writers building Drizzle, PyPRP, Aclugs server, and building ages is an OOC guild. These are the guilds that have forums. There is a section of this forum that lists the guilds and provides links and resource information. Since 2003-04 lots of OOC guilds have formed.

Because many guilds carry the same name in and out of the game and a number of the people playing in the In Cavern guild are the same people working in the OOC guild it can get confusing. That fans mix in IC and OOC play verbiage without distinction it can get really confusing. Saying the Cavern is closed can mean the server is down…

We have a section in this forum on role play in Uru. Uru Live IC/OOC Standards Article But few people conform to good role play writing in this community as it is known in gamedom. We tend to make a particular forum IC or OOC. For instance the DRC forum is IC. This forum is mostly OOC but has IC sections, i.e., Devokan.

New people coming into the game often think Cyan runs the OOC guilds and that guilds are Cyan's. That is a bad assumption to make. Sophia is right, none have official status. However, from time to time Cyan has worked with people in the OOC guilds and used the OOC guilds to help with projects.

There is a basic philosophy in the community which is if you want something done, do it. See a need, fill it. Thinking Cyan runs a guild or that the guilds are like employees here to work for fans misses the point. Many guilds are service organizations. That often translates in the case of guilds to those in the guilds usually being willing to help a bit and advise, place tools where you can find them, share their work, share knowledge, and on occasion do something for someone. Generally OOC guild members and participants are busy engaged in their game play and hobbies, so seldom have time to take on someone’s project or great ideas.